Phoenix Results (Motorcycle

RICE TAKES LATE MODEL KAWASAKI TO FUNNY BIKE
WIN AT INAGURAL PROSTAR WEST EVENT.
By Russ Collins Jr. and Marty Kane
AMA PROSTAR DYNATEK NATIONAL OPEN
SPEEDWORLD MOTORPLEX, PHOENIX, ARIZONA
It has been almost a decade since the now defunct...

It has been almost a decade since the now defunct organization Dragbike
pulled out of the west, and the sport has not been the same since. Since
then racers have been starving for what Prostar had to offer, and after
many phone calls, a letter writing campaign or two, and some good old
fashioned lobbying by racers, fans and manufacturers, The AMA/Prostar
series finally came out west.

Though El Nino was in full swing, and the drive for many on the way to the
race was full of rain drops, the inaugural event could not be stopped. Just
under 90 racers came together from all over, including Wyoming, Illinois,
Oklahoma and Florida, to stake their claim on the $260,000 in contingency
postings.
Friday's rain tapered off and left us with a beautiful, mild desert day for
racing. You've got to love Phoenix in the winter, perfect leather-wearing
weather, 55-60 degrees at 40% humidity. Speedworld Motorplex is a beautiful
lush oasis in the desert which has been recently resurfaced and can
definitely yield some impressive numbers. Many west coast racers have
logged personal bests here, and the short times are definitely to boast about.

The event hosted a manufacturers midway with racing denizens APE, Trac
Dynamics and the event's Sponsor Dynatek, in attendance. This marketing
format is an excellent forum for these Manufacturers to interact with their
customer base.

For those who out guessed the weather and joined us in the desert, it was
an exciting show for all!

FUNNY BIKE

Team Kawasaki rider Steve Rice from Costa Mesa, CA, is clearly setting the
pace with his ZX11 powered machine. Rice became the first 6 second rider of
a late model power plant last year at the Indy AMA/Prostar event. That
first 6 second pass was no fluke. He's repeated and bettered that
performance at a number of tracks around the country since, including a
handful of 200 plus marks. All this and Steve's not working that hard
between rounds. His stock-sized motor doesn't hurt parts. It won't be long
before this tune-up is replicated elsewhere.
With an eight bike field and ten contendors, the three qualifying rounds
were without a doubt the best parade of big gun performance we've seen in
the west in some time. As would be expected, this first race of the season
brought out some brand new bikes and combinations. John Larson finished
welding the chassis on his all new turbo nitrous Kawasaki the day prior,
and with no surprise almost ran away with the event.

The MCC Chassis, Cooper Performance, NOS sponsored bike, ridden by Larry
Laye qualified 2nd at 7.33, 189 mph, and appeared to be closing in on Steve
Rices' #1 position at 7.13, 184 mph. Larry described the new bike as "Just
point me and shoot, this thing's a Cadillac". The 77-inch wheelbase
Cadillac is equipped with a Larson designed, 3 stage, air controlled
lock-up and 4 speed auto, not your average El Dorado. The Larson/Laye duo
will continue to contest PROSTAR West and East coast events this year.
We're going to see much more out of this 6-pass old, final round appearing
bike, as the season progresses.

Qualifying round #1 took out Pete Steuri for the day as he put all 4 rods
out the 1320’ stripe. Steuri's damage was well contained as the Taylor
Motorsports engine diaper kept oil off the racing surface and away from his
tires. Pete and his fellow competitors are grateful the "Huggies"
technology was effective and the Prostar rulebook took safety into
consideration.

Funnybike first round saw Rice single to the AMA/Prostar West record 7.023
@ 184.27. Mike Frechio's 132" Fuel Harley dispensed with Ken Shurtz's
Kawasaki, as Ken shut off with trouble to a 10.14. Larry Laye's
ever-quickening pace was evident in his 7.05-second pass against John
Morgan's masterfully designed Kawasaki, ridden by Steve Humphrey. Morgan is
working the bugs out of what many say is the best engineered ride on the
circuit (it also received the Best Engineered award at the 1997 AMA/Prostar
World Finals). Laye said "Humphrey should not be underestimated and I need
a healthy tune up in case these guys get it together." Humphrey laid down a
centerline hugging 7.99 before loading the trailer.

Steve Ruggiero's Big Twin singled to 7.81, when John Terranova's Kawasaki
continued its new bike blues loosing ignition power at the start.

Steve Rice will tell you the closet race of the day was his 2nd round match
up with Mike Frechio. Rice gave up 4 tenths of a second on the leave and
didn't reel in the fuel Harley until the first mph light. Frechio laid down
a 7.49 in the effort against Rice's 7.05.

Larry Laye took out Ruggiero's nitro-powered Harley, 7.16 to 8.06, to set
himself up with Steve Rice in the final.
The Funnybike final brought number 1 and 2 qualifiers to the starting grid,
no one was at the hot dog stand for this match. Larry took a .010-second
starting line advantage, but at half track his nitrous pressure dropped and
so did the front end. Rice motored to the win with a 7.03-second run
against Layes 7.15.

PRO MODIFIED

Pro Mod performances, over the past year, have some contenders wondering
about throwing their hat into the Funny Bike arena. Although a fledgling
class on the west coast, we got a glimpse of the Pro Mod performance
phenomenon in Scott Valentine's largely uncontested victory at Speedworld.
Scott's Dynatek, MCC, NOS-backed Suzuki, captured the win, #1 qualifying
and AMA/Prostar West record at 7.23, 181.95. Scott says he's still working
on the relatively new competition and has not really put his foot into all
of the power available.
Number two qualifier Ryan Evans burnt the midnight oil to bring his TSP
chassis, Nitrous Express, Airtech sponsored ride to Phoenix. Ryan and his
team worked until 3:00 a.m. race day on the new bike and then drove eight
hours straight to the staging lanes from his Southern California-based
shop. Valentine was ready for a serious match up. "Ryan's got some low 7's
in that tune up and we prepared accordingly."
Our west coast champion Valentine will certainly face increased
competition, as we know of a half dozen Pro Mod bikes that will be ready
for Bakersfield.

PRO STOCK

The sole Pro Stock qualifier was Steven Inoue with a 7.79 at 164.70 mph,
establishing the first west coast mark. The Pro Stock field was diminished
due to a conflicting NHRA bike opener in Gainesville. Fred Camarena, the
lone Pro Stock bike from California, was forced to watch from the sidelines
as he is still recovering from a finish line incident just weeks earlier.

TOP GAS
Jeff Peters and Ron Score have faced off at least a dozen times over the
past two years and although Jeff's been left coast Top Gas champion two
years running, Ron is always right there to keep him honest. This day
belonged to Ron's Custom Cycle of Mesa sponsored 1327 cc Turbo Kawasaki.
Ron gives credit to his crew chief and wife Stacey and children for his
success at Phoenix. Ron's domination of the tree in all 4 rounds also
played a part in his success. Score had just purchased a new chassis just
days earlier and still had been going through the "learning curve" on the
lighter and better reacting tubing.

Quarter final action brought #1 qualifier Chad Compton to the line opposite
Peters. Chad's got the tree wired, but Peters put one on him at the big
end, 8.29 (8.28 index) to an 8.34.

Ron Score met up with Aaron Pine who in the previous round took out yours
truly. My new combinations developed some kind of starting line electrical
glitch. Although I certainly appreciated the 162 mph top end charge that
MDR and Nitrous Express set me up with. Aaron uncharacteristically slept
and Ron shut off to an 8.37 win.

Number three qualifier Mike Davis dispensed with Randall Taylor via the
tree to move in to the semi's.
In the semi's Davis was victim #3 to Score's .02 light. The Jeff Peters
ridden, PPG Paints, Motorcycle Accessory of Mesa, Powder Tech, backed GSXR,
earned the bye in the previous match up. Crew chief and wife Lori, watched
as Jeff took advantage of the bye to check on improving air conditions.

So here we are again with the Mesa, Arizona duo in a Top Gas final. Score
gets just enough margin at the tree to force a break out from Peter's
effort, 8.31 to an 8.23 at the 8.28 index. (There's a number of us in Top
Gas that would love to cut in on this dance at Bakersfield).

SUPER COMP

La Mirada, CA rider Tom Medlin appeared to be qualifying for the hard luck
award for most of the Dynatek National Open. Hard luck with the exception
of 4 round wins and event winners money. Tom traveling with the Herrera
contingency, occupied the pit next to me so I had first hand viewing of
what seemed to be an endless wrenching effort on their march to the finals.
I remember early in the day his discovery that the on-board electric
starter would only work intermittently and thought for sure he would have a
short day. These guys were so busy swapping borrowed batteries (to overcome
the starter's hunger), that the best they could muster in qualifying was
dead last at nearly 2 tenths under the 8.99 index.

On the way to the finals, Tom's Herrera Racing, Barnett Clutches, Kawaguchi
Artworks, Suzuki GSXR, managed his half of the ladder every time the bike
would start (this remained questionable throughout eliminations). In the
quarters, Tom took out Las Vegas rider Kahea Woods in a double break out
decision 8.92 to an 8.86.

Meanwhile, Super Comp standout Rick Hunt dispensed with this portion of the
ladder on the way to the final round. Rick and his father/crew chief are a
tough competition to beat in this class. I had first hand, opposite lane,
experience with these guys last year. You have got to cut a light on Rick,
he almost always runs the number. In typical Hunt style, he posted an 8.992
on the 8.00 index in a quarter final bye run.

In the semi's Rick faced off with Phoenix local favorite, and repeat class
champion, Terry Borkman. Rick took the win in the big end roll out contest
9.04 to Terry's 9.09. Terry cut a light on Randy Langer in the previous
round for a ticket to the semi's. The Super Comp final was decided at the
tree as Tom Medlin took advantage of Rick Hunt's late leave and shut off at
9.07 to Rick's quicker 9.06.

SUPER GAS

West coast Super Gas champion Russ Woodroof, continued his winning ways
with his first PROSTAR appearance and win.
The Bob Pine tuned, Larry Racing, GSXR, worked its way through the field in
classic winning fashion. A double break out decision, followed by a good
light into the final round, at the expense of Kyburz, CA's Mike Davis and
Salt Lake City's Matt Spencer.

Mitchell Lippen's A.J.'s Irish Harp sponsored Kawasaki, defeated Los
Angeles rider Tracy McGee a tenth of a second starting line advantage.
Lippen moved on to defeat Brian Kelly's Suzuki in a double breakout photo
finish 9.85 to 9.84 on the 10 second index.

The Super Gas final round went Woodroof's way as Lippen experienced
mechanical trouble and failed to make the pass. Woodroof's Suzuki completed
the solo pass with an impressive .003 over the index mark.

PRO ET

That's Pro! ET, as in 49 year old Ken Kinsella out of Peoria, AZ. Ken's
Brian Hudson-built GS1100 had its was with a class full of veteran western
racers hailing from Palm Springs to Casper, Wyoming. Ken and wife Charlene
probably traveled the least distance to get to this event, but that doesn't
mean he's not well traveled. Ken's redefining the term "snowbird", he works
in Alaska, lives in Phoenix, and races in Division 6.

Ken drew multi-decade champion Steve Kleinberg out of Scottsdale, in the
second round. Steve was a little impatient and cheated the tree .09 seconds
with Kinsella posting a 9.39 to his 9.35 dial for the victory.
Palm Spring's Jerry Pelton also fell by the wayside via the red light,
giving way to Kinsella's final round opportunity.

On the other side of the ladder, Wildcat Motorsports sponsored Shannon
Purviance, made his way to the final with a superb effort in round 2 with a
9.13, 9.12 dial. In the same round Paul Reithmayer cut the best light of
the day (on the wrong side of the tree) for a heartbreaking .001 red light.

The final was essentially pre-determined as Purviance's Kawasaki self
adjusted its cam timing by a tooth in the previous round. Kinsella rode to
a single win as Purviance lost power on clutch release.

600 SUPERSPORT

Tulsa, OK rider Traci Farr drives a good long way to get to an AMA/Prostar
event. This year she figured the western swing was worth a shot and it paid
off. The Farr Cycle sponsored Suzuki GSXR 600 took her to her first PROSTAR
victory and established the west coast ET record at 10.547.

The other end of the record was set by Neal Moffett's ZX6R Kawasaki. The
Mission Viejo, CA rider, established the mph mark at 127.57.

Marty Ladwig out of San Antonio, TX met up with Traci in the final after
defeating Moffett at the tree 10.83 to Neal's quicker 10.82 in the semi's.
The Texas based rider's respectable 10.74, couldn't get around the
consistent record level performance of the Farr Cycle Suzuki. Traci took
the win with a tenth to spare at 10.63.

STREETBIKE SHOOTOUT

Although fledgling in the west, there's certain future in this exciting
wheelie bar-less, heads up battle grand.

In unlimited action the turbo nitrous (sounds like a funny bike to me) runs
of Herrera, Sprout and Ryckmen, put on a wheel standing show for all in
attendance.

Phoenix rider Walter Sprout put a hole shoot on Augustine Herrera and kept
the front end low enough to take the win in the final 9.63 to Augustine's
quicker 9.56.

Sprout's GSXR laid down an 8.88 160.35 in qualifying en route to his victory.

In Modified action, Ken Washington brought "The Goose" out from San
Antonio. The Triple "R" Cycles sponsored ride is well known at home. Ken
plans on spreading the news. The 1987 GSXR1100 soloed to a 10.043, 137.32.
Good for the win, good for the record.

Ex street racer John St. Pierre, all the way from Chicago, rode uncontested
to the Street Bike Shootout Stock class. Stock, as in no turbo, nitrous, or
swingarm extension. There's something very not stock about John's bike. His
Ray Bellucci, Dymag, Dynatek, Vahzu Racing 1300cc ride is putting 190 hp to
the rear wheel. John used this horsepower to set the AMA/Prostar West
record at 9.856 at 144.46

STREET & HARLEY ET

Phoenix local Lynn Fitzgerald, battled through 4 rounds of bracket racing
to capture the win. Lynn put the ZX11 Kawasaki through its paces with some
very good reaction times en route to the final round match with Warren Warner.